Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/357



SCENE FIRST.

''In Antioch. An open colonnade, with statues and a fountain in front of it. To the left, under the colonnade, a flight of steps leads up to the Imperial Palace.''

A company of Courtiers, Teachers, Poets, and Orators—among them the court-physician,, and the poet, —are assembled, some in the colonnade, some around the fountain; most of them are dressed in ragged cloaks, with matted hair and beards.

I can endure this life no longer. To rise with the sun, plunge into a cold bath, run or fence oneself weary

'Tis all very wholesome.

Is it wholesome to eat seaweed and raw fish?

Is it wholesome to have to devour meat in great lumps, all bloody, as it comes from the butcher?